Measuring compliance is likely going to be incredibly difficult unless Russia just says they're complying even if they're not.

Quote from: brettmcd on September 17, 2013, 01:43:13 AM

If you trust Putin and the Syrians. I sure as hell don't trust either of them.

Then it's very fortunate that Russia will not be in charge of the disarmament. That responsibility is slated for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, an international body formed out of all the countries which have signed and ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention. It employs inspectors from all over the world, including the United States, and you can find a rundown of its current Executive Council here.

Will this plan work? I have no earthly idea, but since everyone involved seems to be on board and it's the best solution I can possibly imagine, I think we should give it a shot.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. I'm sorry. brettmcd, you were about to give your first reason on why this current course of action is such an outrageous "failure of leadership"?

Regardless of who used them, I still say it's not in our national security interest to get involved in another civil war in the middle east, especially if the Assad regime follows through with destroying their chemical weapons.

Quote

Following Monday’s U.N. report on the findings of chemical weapons inspectors in Syria, the question no longer appears to be if chemical weapons were used in Syria last month, but who used them?

The U.S. and other western allies have a quick answer: the Syrian government. But, on Wednesday, the BBC reports, Russian Foreign Ministers Sergei Lavrov plans to present evidence to the Security Council “implicating Syrian rebels in a chemical attack" on August 21st. Russia Today, however, goes one step further reporting that, according to Lavrov, “Russia will provide the UN Security Council with data proving that the chemical weapons near Damascus were used by the opposition.”

Regardless of who used them, I still say it's not in our national security interest to get involved in another civil war in the middle east, especially if the Assad regime follows through with destroying their chemical weapons.

Quote

Following Monday’s U.N. report on the findings of chemical weapons inspectors in Syria, the question no longer appears to be if chemical weapons were used in Syria last month, but who used them?

The U.S. and other western allies have a quick answer: the Syrian government. But, on Wednesday, the BBC reports, Russian Foreign Ministers Sergei Lavrov plans to present evidence to the Security Council “implicating Syrian rebels in a chemical attack" on August 21st. Russia Today, however, goes one step further reporting that, according to Lavrov, “Russia will provide the UN Security Council with data proving that the chemical weapons near Damascus were used by the opposition.”

Yet the jihadis, including members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an al-Qaida offshoot, have been some of the most effective forces on the battlefield, fighting alongside the Western-backed Free Syrian Army to capture military facilities, strategic installations and key neighborhoods in cities such as Aleppo and Homs.

But the two sides have turned their guns on each other. Turf wars and retaliatory killings have evolved into ferocious battles in what has effectively become a war within a war in northern and eastern Syria, leaving hundreds dead on both sides.

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